It's not only the low number of players, but the fact that this version of Kosmor is "international" and the tournament is a real time game. Because of the time zones it would be unfair for half the globe, because the tournament would take place to awkward times.

If you are lucky to be European - or American, who likes to start playing early in the morning:
as the tournament doesn't regard any ingame progress, you could easily make an account on the German version (www.kosmor.de), waiting for the next German tournament. The interface is of course in German, but the buttons are the same as in the English version

The tournament, however, works like Kosmor, but the processor runs every 10 minutes and ends after a specific number of runs (about 30?), which allows you to call the leader of number 1 house then a winner.
Furthermore the map is much smaller (depending on the number of players) and you don't start with zero, but some planets and factories to make it very intense - what it is indeed: no other five hours are more exciting and faster over than those of a Kosmor tournament

8 minutes tick times 30 equals 4 hours...
that's the config recently used in the german version.
the homeplanets of the participants are equally distant positionated in a small ring-shaped universe. every player can reach all others within one 600 ly jump.

The pro-turns that can be obtained, when winning the german tournament can only be used for .de, as the games are separated. When we have K2, there will be .com tournaments, too. Until then, I suggest you try the .de tournaments, if you know the game interface, it should be straightforward._________________Commander Maelstroem in the house BG